AIA Louisiana presented its prestigious Honor and Merit Awards for architectural excellence to seven projects late last year. Waggonner & Ball Architects, New Orleans, won all three Honor Awards and one of four Merit Awards. The other firms to win Merit Awards are Eskew+Dumez+Ripple of New Orleans, and Ledbetter Fullerton Architects, also of New Orleans. AIA Louisiana also honored outgoing President Trula Remson, AIA, with the President’s Medal and Certificate for outstanding service to the AIA and profession of architecture.

Honor Awards

Dog Trot Weekend Home, in the rural hills of southern Mississippi, by Waggonner & Ball Architects
Typical of a rural Southern frame house, this 850-square-foot weekend getaway was designed with an open porch that provides informal, double-height dining and living space. The architects also design in a sleeping loft and a screen porch that overlooks a swampy corner of a nearby pond.
Photo © Kerri McCaffery.

Isidore Newman Lower School Expansion, New Orleans, by Waggonner & Ball Architects
The architects on this project designed a new lower-school campus that weaves together an existing two-story classroom building with two new buildings. A two-story entry hall and bridge element serves as the project’s connector. The pitched roof forms, horizontal wall panels, and stucco-and-brick cladding relate the buildings to both the rest of the school campus and the neighborhood beyond.
Photo © Alise O’Brien.

A.B. Freeman School of Business, New Orleans, by Waggonner & Ball Architects
This new, 58,100-square-foot, three-story building needed its own identity on a site that is bordered by mature live oaks and taller buildings. To do so, the architects designed it as an L-shape that cradles a split-level, flagstone-paved outdoor plaza. The resulting structure offers some relief from its surrounding neighbors, providing a variety of spaces, including classrooms, conference rooms, specialized classes, offices, dining areas, and student services spaces.
Photo © Alise O’Brien.

Merit Awards

Residential Loft Renovation, Garden District, New Orleans, by Eskew + Dumez + Ripple
To create this 4,000-square-foot, mixed-use residential/commercial property, the architects had to completely gut and restore a historic warehouse in the Garden District. A six-foot-wide stair parallels the triangular building and reaches up to a skylighted penthouse addition that offers access to an outdoor roof deck. The unique residential plan is organized around a 30-feet-long cabinet.
Photo © David Richmond & Jay Seastrunk.

Lake Pontchatrain Boathouse, on the New Orleans Lakefront, by Ledbetter, Fullerton Architects
This project entailed renovation of a 1,600-square-foot boathouse that reconciles grade-level parking, storage and mechanical space, and a second-level living space. The architects removed a sheetrock ceiling to expose steel beams, tension rods, and a corrugated roof. At the center of the space floats a glass-box bathroom, which separates the living area and kitchen from the master bedroom.
Photo © Richard Sexton.

Trinity Episcopal Nursery School, Garden District, New Orleans, by Waggonner & Ball Architects
Developed from a master plan that also had been created by the architects, this project included renovating two historic shotgun cottages and linking them to a new structure with porches, thus creating a u-shaped courtyard. The plan both organizes the Episcopal school site to fit into a residential setting and provides play areas for all weather conditions.
Photo © Robert Brantley.

Louisiana State Museum, Baton Rouge, by Eskew + Dumez + Ripple
Set between the State Capitol Tower and the State Library, this 69,200-square-foot museum can be approached from either direction, with visitors converging at a large, covered terrace that provides a framed view of the capitol. The architects created a composition of concrete, glass, and metal wall panels, which transition from solid to perforated at the entry terrace.
Photo © Tim Hursley.

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